5 Lindsay Drive, $3.695 ask, was reported under contract last April, and returned to the market June 25th after the deal fell through. Last night, a reader who wishes to remain anonymous hinted why:

Hi Chris,

You may be interested to do a little digging at Town Hall into the reason the 5 Lindsay Drive contract fell through. It’s a good warning for house buyers to bring an architect along when buying a house. Things don’t always appear as they really are.

Without going to Town Hall (hey,it’s 5:45 am), I’d guess the difficulty arose over the presence of the second home on the property. Usually structures that were legal (zoning-compliant) when built are “grandfathered”, meaning they’re exempt from current zoning restrictions, but not always. On the other hand, it might be something else.

What I do know is that this has always been a very attractive piece of land, but overpriced because of its owner’s insistence on pricing it as though there were value in the house and outbuildings. If a problem has arisen, perhaps a bit of reality is beginning to set in, and this might be an opportunity to offer a realistic, albeit much lower, bid.

Or not – the owner’s a real estate agent, and we all know how that goes.

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36 responses to “Something happened”

Almost got it right.
Hire Landscape Architect first.
We are not just about parsely ’round the pig’ or exterior designers.
We can subdue the mere 3d Arch’s. and PE brains and muzzle the beagles so there is still cash left for beauty and FUN!

Let’s say the land is worth $2.5mm. Both the house and carriage house appear to be recently renovated with recent high end kitchens and bathrooms. It is hard to believe that there is no incremental value in the two structures. Not every buyer wants a guest house in their backyard but for some families it may be great. I hope you find out the answer to this mystery.

In which case the two renovated structures may be an even bigger bargain to some buyers, even though a builder would prefer to just buy the land. I still am not sure 2 acres on Lindsay is worth $3mm. Nice street but some examples of McMansion excess. Flagler maybe.

Maybe the guest house is grandfathered but still consumes some of the available FAR square footage so if a buyer wanted to build a new house but retain the guest house they have 2,000 less square feet to play with.

Don’t you find that Obama’s comments on Wall St. practices have a ring of ignorance? He tries to fake knowledge of a topic about which he knows nothing. It sounds like a 12 year old trying to convince an eight year old that he knows ALL ABOUT quantum physics.

Maybe this is why accepted offers and signed contracts don’t seem to be reported lately (it’s either that or the market has slowed down hugely). Are brokers spooked that something is going to pop up to kill a deal and then the property? Or is it just the change in GAR and the listing system? It just feels like there are now far fewer accepted offers, contracts, sales. This new system may hurt the market I think. They want to keep buyers out of the loop and unable to compare and they may just drive them away.

Dude –
This is off topic, but you aren’t posting doggy dung, so I had to squeeze it in. Sorry.

Do you have all of our pyrotechnics for tomorrow? Our fireworks, our bottle rockets, our ass cans, our cherry bombs, our Roman candles, WHICH WE CAN SHOOT OUT OF OUR ASSES DUDE, our nigg….our negro chasers? Some sparklers for you, maybe? You little homo.

Where is the BBQ at? And what time? Maybe at little Stevie Cohen’s house? I am sure he will be in the Hampton’s, that pretend WASP wannabe. Why can’t he just accept being a Jew? There is nothing wrong with it, and it made him rich. Even though he doesn’t control Hollywood.

Anyhows, what should I bring? Besides Steph? Are you bringing Ms. McBeal, or is she still in prison? The lezbo lady licker bullpen? The hoosegow? The crib?

I will bring the Nathan’s franks. The only real hot dog. ALL THE OTHERS SUCK!! And Boar’s Head Deli mustard. The brown kind. That yellow Gulden’s crap SUCKS!! I HATE IT!! It is baby diaper poo poo mustard. And potato rolls. And macaroni salad. Made with real Hellman’s mayo. ANYTHING ELSE IS AN INSULT!!

And I demand. I DEMAND!! Red and white checkered tablecloths. AND NOT PLASTIC!! I want the real paper stuff.

So what time? And what is the weather forecast?

Can you believe it’s been almost 200 years since Ben Franklin wrote the Declaration of Independence? And it took Barry less than six years to destroy it?

Even though it will rain like hell, we will have a merry 4th of July because it is dawning that a) the patriotic party (R) will soon win the Senate, and b) the Hill-witch will never become president.

Democrat strategerists, like the French ancient regime, never learned anything and never forgot anything. They are elated by their success in electing our first black president. After 50 years of the media bashing Americans for their irredeemable racism, the dems offered voters the opportunity to expiate this sin by voting for Obama. Enough voters bought this baloney to put Obama over the top, (although it took an assist from Republican boo-boos such as Iraq, financial crisis, McCain…)

The same strategerists are now working to duplicate their earlier success by substituting Hillary/”war on women” for Obama/racial prejudice. How does this theme grab you: American society grievously mistreats women, and you have the opportunity to right this wrong by voting for that battle-ax Hillary!

Frankly, it doesn’t grab me either. Although many will believe that blacks are treated unfairly, (an observation which has some truth), there aren’t enough fools who can be convinced that a) American society despises women, and b) electing Hillary will right this supposed wrong, providing the same self-congratulatory preening felt by those who chose Mr. Hope-and-Change.

Women as oppressed minority doesn’t have the power of blacks as oppressed minority.

Back to Lindsay….land is not that great. Look to your left… look to your right. Neighboring properties are relatively level. Lindsey is built on the ridge that cuts along in parallel to North. Big drop from one end to the other.

Good grief the land is relatively flat. I still think the land value is $2.5mm, not $3mm. Getting two renovated houses for $800K above land value is also a great deal for somebody other than a builder.

The deal fell through because all of the work in the outbuilding was done without permits and is loaded with violations. It was the intention of the buyer to move one of their parents into it but learned because of the violations would not legally be able to do so. And they did hire an architect. It was the architect who rightfully brought up the concerns. Listing broker knew all this and did not disclose. Selling broker was lazy and never pulled a field card.

Good information, thank you for posting. It looks as if the guest house had substantial renovations. Do you think they current owner or a future buyer will be able to get the permits retroactively, or was the work done never going to be up to code?

There are enough exposed violations that if the building dept. were to allow retroactive permits to be filed, they most likely would want the place pretty much gutted to inspect the roughs. That aside, the amount of developed “living space” within the structure is about triple what zoning would allow in an outbuilding on the same property. It’s a real mess.

Listing and selling brokers? I’m not a broker so forgive my ignorance but isn’t there just a seller’s broker and buyer’s broker? If anything, aren’t the selling broker and listing broker the same person?

There’s the listing broker, who owes, along with its agents, absolute loyalty to the seller/property owner, and the buyer’s representative, who owes that same duty to the buyer. Just to be confusing, the buyer’s rep is often referred to as the “selling agent” because he or she produced the buyer that resulted in the sale.